With such panels as “Working in the Louisiana Film Industry” and “The Future of Independent Filmmaking in Louisiana,” ideal for aspiring filmmakers looking for informed advice. The Third Annual “I Love Louisiana” on Sunday, Oct. 17, 2010, the New Orleans Film Festival celebrates film and filmmaking in Louisiana.
Additionally, several narrative features, narrative short films and a number of documentaries, will be featured, including John Kennedy Toole: The Omega Point, chronicling the story of the above mentioned New Orleanian author of “A Confederacy of Dunces” (beforehand check-out the Loyola University New Orleans’ Monroe Library’s special collections exhibit A Confederacy of Dunces Abroad, an exhibit of over 30 foreign languages editions of the book which ends Oct. 15, 2010).
Walker Percy: A Documentary Film recounts the life of the eponymous Southern novelist (who also had his collection exhibited at the Monroe Library last year)
The Canal Street Madam, follows the true story of Jeanette Maier, a successful New Orleans madam who after the FBI took her down tries to reestablish herself again.
Classic Cinema
Two must-see black & white film noir deconstruction, Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless (A bout de soufflé) and Alfred Hitchock’s Strangers on a Train, will both be showing at The Prytania Theatre.
Breathless, the 1960 film that heralded the French New Wave, reinterprets the American crime thriller starring the super cool Jean-Paul Belmondo and the gorgeous Jean Seberg.
Strangers on a Train, written by Raymond Chandler, follows a pact between two strangers to commit the perfect murder: each one will kill someone in the other’s life, in order to lack any discernible motive.
For those seeking short films from across the globe, look no further. The following categories will screen on multiple occasions: Narrative Shorts – Comedy, Dramedy, Family Issues, Drama (Political/Historical), Drama (Thriller/Horror) and Documentary Shorts – Veterans, Man and Nature, Overcoming Adversity, Slice of Life.
In addition, several special short programs will screen, including: La Doogie Vita (featuring an hour long collection of hilarious Westbank puppet legend Lil Doogie) ; Made in the Seventh, three short films created by youth in the 7th Ward of New Orleans in conjunction with the Porch 7th Ward Cultural Organization; and screening with Haynesville, a showing of Wind Uprising which examines the turbulent journey of an entrepreneur and an engineer who broke trail for wind energy in coal country.
Other notable features films include:
Dramatic Narratives: Cigarettes and Nylons, is the true story of the rescue of three of the 6,500 French women during WWII, after marrying American soldiers they don’t know in order to get shipped to safety with their new in-laws in America.
In director Tony Goldwyn’s Conviction, Hilary Swank plays a sister to Sam Rockwell, who knows her brother’s murder conviction is false and dedicates her life to overturning it.
Fair Game, by filmmaker Doug Liman, is an action-thriller based on the autobiography of real-life CIA operative Valerie Plame (Naomi Watts). Sean Penn plays her husband.
Cult Narratives: The German horror film The Human Centipede follows the terrifying predicament three women find themselves in after being kidnapped by dastardly Dr. Heiter, who plans to be the first to connect.
The midnight cult sensation The Room is an unintentionally funny drama that has been running for over six years in Los Angeles.
Documentary Features: American Grindhouse explores the history of exploitation films in America.
Humorist and New Orleans resident Harry Shearer investigates Hurricane Katrina (Shearer will be in attendance) with The Big Uneasy.
For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism is self-explanatory. Waiting for Superman, Davis Guggenheim’s follow-up to An Inconvenient Truth, is an indictment of the failing American public school system.
The screenings and panels mentioned above, in this issue and last week’s, are only a small sampling of the exciting fare The NOFF has to offer. The full program can be found at http://www.neworleansfilmsociety.org and at all of the screening venues. Go check-out this fantastic event before it is over.
Ari Silber is a Loyola MBA student. Before graduate school, he worked for nine years in the Los Angeles film industry, focusing on marketing, publicity and distribution.
Ari Silber can be reached at
